The Coming of Zoroaster (from Daqiqi's Verse)

After some years had passed like this, a tree appeared upon the earth. In Goshtasp's hall, facing the palace, stood a lush tree with many branches. All its leaves were counsel, its fruit was wisdom; how could one who nurtures wisdom ever die? Blessed was his path, and his name was Zoroaster, who slew the evil-natured Ahriman. He told the Kayanid king: I am a prophet, and I bring wisdom to guide you. The Creator of the world says: accept the faith; look upon this sky and this earth. I raised them up without soil or water; look at how I made them. Consider whether anyone else could do this, except me, who alone rule the world. If you truly know that I made all this, then you must call me the Creator of the world. Accept the faith from the one who speaks it; learn from him his path and his ways. See what he tells you, and act on it; choose wisdom and hold this world as worthless. Learn the good faith and its ways, for kingship without faith is not fitting. When the king heard him, he embraced the better faith; he accepted from him the good path and creed. His warrior brother, the fortunate Zarir, who could bring a raging elephant to its knees, the king who among kings had grown old in Balkh, the world had turned bitter upon his wounded heart, he had grown frail and sick, senseless and drained; to him even honey tasted like poison. The chiefs, the nobles, and all the great ones, the wise and renowned physicians, devised remedies against that spell, but nothing they tried did any good. Then this prophet Zoroaster said that God's faith must not be hidden from him, for once he accepts the faith from the very first day, he will be freed from pain and made whole. The king of kings, and after him Zarir the horseman, all embraced the faith from the ruler. They all came to the king of the land, tied the sacred girdle, and came into the faith. The divine glory shone forth, and evil left the hearts of the malicious. The shrines filled with heavenly light, and the bloodlines were cleansed of defilement. Then the noble Goshtasp ascended his throne and sent armies out to every corner of the land. He scattered priests throughout the world and set up domes above the sacred fires. First he founded the Mehr-e Borzin fire; look at Kashmar and the rite he established there. There was a noble cypress from paradise, and he planted it before the door of the fire temple. Upon that straight, freeborn cypress he wrote that Goshtasp had accepted the good faith. He made the noble cypress his witness; thus he spread wisdom and justice. As some years passed by, the trunk of that cypress grew thick around. The noble cypress grew so tall that no lasso could circle it. When its leaves and branches had multiplied, he built a fine palace atop it. Forty cubits high and forty wide; in its foundation he used no clay or mortar. He raised two halls of pure gold, their floors of silver and their soil of amber. On them he had Jamshid depicted, worshipping the moon and the sun. He also ordered Fereydun, with his ox-headed mace, to be painted there. He portrayed all the great ones there; see what mastery and power he held. When that famed golden palace was finished, with gems set into its walls, he built an iron wall around it, and the king of the land took his seat within. He sent word to every corner of the country: what in the world is like the cypress of Kashmar? God sent it to me from paradise, and told me: from here, turn toward heaven. Now whoever hears this counsel of mine, go on foot toward the cypress of Kashmar. Take the counsel that Zoroaster gives, and turn your back on the idols of China. By the glory and majesty of the king of Iranians, all of you tie the sacred girdle at your waists. Do not look to the ways of those who came before; pass beneath the shade of this cypress. Turn your faces toward the dome of the fire, at the command of the truthful prophet. His command spread throughout the world, to the renowned and to the great. All the renowned, obeying his command, set their faces toward the cypress of Kashmar. It became a place of worship, for there Zoroaster bound the demon and turned it away. Call it a piece of paradise if you do not know it; why do you call it merely the cypress of Kashmar? Why not call it a sapling of paradise, since the Kayanid king planted it in Kashmar?